Sequel to the Sequel of Booth's daughter
by Zoey Seraphine Bates
Summary: Fluffolicious. Reviewers will love the end.


Sequel to the Sequel of Booth's daughter. This is for my BFF Aaron, who helps me write Booth's character so well. No matter what you say, he can always fire the comment right back at you in a way that makes you admit he's right.

Disclaimer: Not mine. But why do I have to disclaim it? That makes it sound like I don't want it.

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He still couldn't believe the first word she said was "Booth". She obviously loved him. Why wouldn't Bones marry him?

This is what Booth was contemplating as he waited for Brennan at The Diner. Finally he saw her walk in. He had ordered her usual for her.

"Thanks for ordering for me, traffic on the beltway can be brutal."

"Not a problem. How's Roxie?"

"She's spending the night with Angela."

"Okay. Has she said my name again?"

"No, she called you dad."

"Really? Did I finally find somebody that doesn't call me by my last name?"

"Yes, she called you dad. Clear as day. She said 'Booth is dad.'"

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I told you she knew I was her father."

"Booth, that's what's worrying me. I don't need you in my life."

"Bones, most women would want their kids to have a father."

"Why didn't Rebecca marry you if that's so important to all women?"

"I don't know, Bones. Am I not a good man?"

"Booth, you know you are a great man."

"Why won't you marry me?"

"I don't need a man in my life."

"Roxie needs a father."

"Booth, as I've said before, the woman is more important in a set of parents."

"The father is important too."

"Yes, but the mother is more important. Children are emotionally damaged more if they don't have a mother than if they don't have a father."

"Please Bones, it's okay to admit you're wrong about something."

"I'm not wrong."

"You said 'damaged more without a mother'. That suggests that Roxie will still be damaged without me."

"Booth, a father isn't essential. Look what your father did to you."

"I told you to never bring him up."

"You are just upset because I'm right. If your father hadn't been in your life, you would've been better off."

"That's different. I couldn't ever hurt you or Roxie."

"You don't know that, Booth."

"Yes, I do."

"Booth, why do you think that you have to be in Roxie's and my lives?"

"I'm Roxie's father. You obviously love me or you wouldn't have wanted me to be the father of your child. Why won't you marry me?"

"I decline to answer that."

"Why? That just tells me you don't have an answer."

"I have an answer."

"Tell me."

"Logic."

"You want logic? Logically, Roxie should have a father. Logically, if I'm going to be her father, I should live with her. She lives with you, so I should live with you. Logically, if I'm going to live you, we should just get married."

"I accept that logic."

"Is that a yes?"

"No. I was just saying that was good logic."

"Damn Bones, are you ever going to say yes?"

"No. Why would I want to say yes?"

"Roxie needs a father. You need someone to protect you."

"I don't need anyone to protect me."

"But Roxie still needs a father. Come on Bones, what's it going to hurt if you let me be her father?"

"Roxie would think less of me when she got older because I didn't marry you."

"Bones, if she never knows anything other than having a father that doesn't live with her, she won't say anything about it. Then again, you could always just marry me and she wouldn't have a reason to ask."

"Booth, no matter how many times you ask, I won't marry you. Do you really think she won't say anything?"

"I promise you, she won't say one word if she doesn't know any different."

"Okay, you can treat her like a father. But if she says one word about why I'm not married to you when she gets older, I swear to God Booth…"

"I know Bones. I promise she won't say anything."

"She better not."

"She won't."

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"Booth, I need help with Roxie. She won't calm down."

"I'll be right there."

When he showed up at her apartment about three minutes later, he found that Brennan had left the door unlocked for him. When he came in, he saw what Brennan had meant. Roxie was crying hysterically.

"She's been fed, I patted her back, I changed her, and she's still crying. She's just like you, fussy."

"Let me hold her, Bones."

She handed Roxie to him. As always, Roxie calmed down in about two minutes.

"Booth, how do you do that?"

"I'm her father. She loves me. I think she might be crying because she wants to be with me."

"Why would she cry because she wants to see her father?"

"She loves me. She misses me."

He still hadn't given Roxie back to Brennan, and she was trying to get her back.

He quickly handed Roxie back to Brennan.

"You've calmed her down. You can go home any time you want to."

Booth really wanted to tell her that if she kept using him like that that he wouldn't be a part of her life or Roxie's. He couldn't tell her that though. He loved both of them so much.

"I want to stay."

"Booth, you can't move in."

"Why?"

"I don't need you. I'm managing fine on my own."

"If you were managing fine on your own, you wouldn't need me to come over and calm her down when you can't."

"She would calm down eventually. You calm her down quickly, it helps prevent me getting a bad headache."

"Bones, you know you love me. You want me in her life and you want me in your life."

"No. That may be what I want right now, but…"

"But what, Bones?" He cut her off. "If that's what you want, marry me. You can have what you want. Anything and everything."

"It would be stupid to act on what I want in the moment. It's all about the future."

"Exactly. Think about the future. Roxie will want a father when she gets older. I can be her father."

"I'll get hurt if I marry you."

"How will you get hurt, Bones? I wouldn't ever leave you. I couldn't ever hurt you. I wouldn't dream of it."

"I know that you wouldn't ever hurt me intentionally. Death is inevitable."

"That's decades in the future."

"You said it yourself, that's the future."

"You love me. Can you just admit that?"

"I love you."

"You're in love with me?"

"What's the difference between 'love' and 'in love'?

"When you love somebody, you care about them. When you are in love with somebody, you can't live without them. They're what you wake up for every day."

"Booth, you wake up because your brain has had enough rest. You don't wake up for someone."

"You care about them so much that you are happy when they're happy, you cry when they cry, and when something happens to them, you want to make it up to them."

"I'm in love with you."

"Marry me."

"You are very persistent. How many times do I have to turn you down before you quit asking?"

"How many times do I have to ask before you say yes?"

"That wasn't an answer."

"That was my answer."

"What does that answer mean?"

"It means I won't stop asking until you say yes."

"You're never going to stop asking?"

"You're never going to say yes?"

"No."

"Then no, I'm never going to stop asking."

"Booth, I don't want to marry you. It'll just hurt me later on."

"Please, Bones. I promise you'd be happy."

"I know I'd be happy."

"Then marry me."

"No. You've asked me eleven times, and I've said no every time. You might as well save your oxygen."

"Save your breath, Bones. Not save your oxygen."

"Whatever. No matter how many times you ask, I'll say no."

"Bones, we bicker all the time."

"Yeah."

"I win sometimes, don't I?"

"Yes."

"Maybe this is one of those times that I should win. Give in. Marry me."

"That's twelve times you've asked and it's the twelve time you will be turned down."

"Bones, you are so difficult. Why? I think you won't marry me because you know that it would make me happy. You like to disagree with me."

"Booth, I love you. I really do."

"Compromise. Make me happy."

Just then, Roxie started crying. Brennan tried to calm her down, but she couldn't.

"Let me take her Bones."

Wordlessly, she handed Roxie over to Booth.

Roxie calmed down in about five minutes this time.

"I wish I could do that, Booth."

"Bones, you've got to have practice with kids. It comes in time."

"I want to be like you."

"It's not something you learn. It's not something I can teach you. It's something that comes naturally over time. Why don't you just let me help you take care of Roxie for now? Worry about the future when we get there."

"There will be no 'we'. I still won't marry you."

"I love you, Bones."

"I love you too, Booth"

He took Roxie to her crib and came back. He wrapped his arms around her. It hurt him more every time they slept together and he still had to go home alone. He knew he needed to stop before he got hurt badly, but he just couldn't stop. She was like an addiction to him. Like the one his father and brother had to alcohol, or his former gambling addiction. It was so easy to get addicted to the one you love.

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"I'm going to dinner with Booth. Can Roxie stay with you tonight?"

"Why? Do you think you're going to be getting some from the hot FBI agent?"

"Probably."

"That's good, sweetie. Have you agreed to marry him yet?"

"I'm not going to say yes."

"Why won't you just marry him?"

"Marriage is illogical. Why do I need a man in my life?"

"Your daughter needs a father. Booth is her biological father. Why shouldn't it be him? You love him."

"I do love him. He'd hurt me, Angie."

"Death is inevitable. Be happy while you're alive. You aren't going to live forever. Why live like you're already dead?"

"I've never looked at it like that before. You're right. I shouldn't worry about the hurt, I should just be happy now. Worry about that when I get there."

"Did you just agree with me?"

"Yes. And, if Booth asks me to marry him tonight, I'm going to say yes."

"I hope he does ask you. You two are perfect for each other in every way."

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"I love you, Booth."

"I love you too, Bones."

"I want to be with you forever."

"Remember, Bones, 'You aren't going to live forever.'"

"Fine, I want to be with you until I die."

"Are you asking me to marry you?"

"Booth, you've spent every night at my house for the past two weeks. Why would it be strange that I want you to move in?"

"Bones, I don't want to hurt you."

"How are you going to hurt me?"

"I can't move in. It just doesn't feel right."

"So, you've asked me twelve times to marry you, but you won't move in?"

"Bones, I love you, I really, really do. I just can't move in until it is the right time."

"But, 'Roxie needs a father and I need someone to protect me.'?"

"'I'm managing fine, Booth. I don't need you.'"

"Okay, right now, I need you. I want Roxie to have a father."

"'The mother is more important in a set of parents. Children are damaged more emotionally without a mother than without a father.'"

"Booth, quit giving me such a hard time."

"Is it not what you told me when I asked you to marry me?"

"It is what I told you, and I'm sorry."

"Should I be like you? Should I just tell you I don't need you in my life even when I do? Should I insist that I don't want to be with you, but sleep with you every chance I get? Should I just break your heart time and time again, even though you keep coming back for more? That's what you've done to me. Eye for and eye action."

"That would be the fair action, but I could change my mind tomorrow."

"Bones, I won't move in with you."

"Please, Booth? You would be happy."

"'I know I would be happy, but I shouldn't base my actions on the moment. It's all about the future.'"

"Booth, can you stop using my own words against me?"

"I promise I'll stop."

"Thanks."

She switched sides so that she could sit by Booth. She put her head on his shoulder.

"I love you, Booth. I want you to be Roxie's father. I'm afraid to marry you because men have always hurt me."

"I wouldn't hurt you."

"I know. I'm sick of fighting. I don't want to fight over weather or not we should get married. I like having you around. I feel so safe with you."

"Let's compromise. I'll move in with you, and I won't try to force you."

"Booth, that's not a compromise. That's you doing something I want you to do."

"Bones, I'm powerless against you. Don't marry me just because you know it would make me happy."

"Booth, that's what a compromise is. In this compromise, you move in and I marry you."

"Bones, I'll move in. Don't marry me for a compromise. That's what true love is, Bones. You don't care about what you want, you just want the other person to be happy."

"I don't feel that way about you yet."

"You just recently realized you love me. It takes time. I've loved you for four years. I loved you the first day I met you, even though you annoyed the hell out of me."

"I've loved you for two years. You always take care of me. You love me."

Booth got down on one knee in front of Bones.

In a gentile voice, Booth asked, "Will you marry me Bones?".

"I want to marry you, Booth. My brain says I shouldn't, but my heart is telling my brain to shut up. Yes, Booth. Let's get married."

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